Chandigarh Forest Flora
A Comprehensive Database of Ligneous Plants of Chandigarh (India)
Designed & Developed by Bioinformatics Centre, Forest Research Institute, Dehradun
| Family: Solanaceae | Genus: Withania | Species: Withania somnifera (Linn.) Dunal |
Habit |
Leaf |
Flower |
Fruit |
Bark |
|
|
| Synonym | Physalis somnifera Linn. | Flower Color | Greenish |
| Common Name | Indian Ginseng | Flower Type | Cyme |
| English / Trade Name | Winter cherry, Indian Ginseng | Flowering Period | April-June |
| Vernacular /Local Name | Ashwagandha | Fruiting Period | July-Sept |
| Altitude | Upto 1500 m | Fruit Type | Berry |
| Habit | Shrub | Fruit Details | A globose berry, orange, overtopped by the inflated, accrescent calyx; seeds discoid, trigonous. |
| Habitat | Habitat Distributed throughout the drier region of India, especially in wasteland ascending to an altitude of 2000 m in the Himalaya. | Bark Type | Smooth |
| Distribution | From the Mediterranean through tropical Africa to South Africa and from the Canary and Cape Verde Islands to the Middle East and Arabia, India, Sri Lanka and southern China. | Bark Details | Greyish green in colour and covered with short, fine, silver-grey, branched hairs |
| Distribution in chandigarh | Chandigarh Botanical Garden and Nature Park | Origin | Native |
| Leaf Type | Simple | ||
| Leaf Arrangement | Alternate (leaves born singly along stem) | ||
| Leaf Shape | Elliptic | ||
| Description of Species | A suffruticose shrub, 60-90 cm tall. Branches ascending. Shoots stellate-tomentose. Leaves , elliptic-ovate to broadly ovate, acute, cuneate or oblique, entire to repand. Petiole 10-20 mm long. Flowers sessile to subsessile, greenish-yellow, in axillary clusters of 2-5.Calyx, stellately hairy, becoming glabrescent and membranous; teeth 1-1.5 mm long, up to 8 mm in fruit, acute. Corolla lobes triangular, tomentose to the outside. Anthers sub included; filaments 1-2.5 mm long. Berry globose, red. Seeds sub pyriform to reniform, minutely reticulate-foveolate, yellowish-brown. | Leaf Details | Leaves elliptic-ovate to broadly ovate, acute, cuneate or oblique, entire to repand. Petiole 10-20 mm long. |
